Awareness on the Use of Intravenous Sedation for Periodontal Surgeries - A Questionnaire Based Study

Conscious sedation is a valuable approach to address anxious patients and treat them with the utmost comfort level. Thus the knowledge regarding the practice of conscious sedation among dental practitioners seems to be the need of the hour with increasing patient demands. This study aims to assess the knowledge, awareness and practice of conscious sedation for periodontal surgeries among dental practitioners. This questionnaire based study was conducted in the form of an online survey. A structured questionnaire with 20 questions in the area of its indications and contraindications, various drugs used in conscious sedation and the side effects of these drugs were included. The results showed that only 51% of the participants chose to use conscious sedation when dealing with anxious patients. Also 58.9% of the study population considered conscious sedation as an option when the patient is extremely uncooperative due to anxiety and for patients who have a lesser threshold of pain. 64.4% are aware that conscious sedation brings a partial loss of consciousness with response to verbal and physical stimulus. Within the limits of the study it can be concluded that there is a moderate level of awareness regarding practice of conscious sedation among the dental practitioner. Practitioners in urban and suburban areas who have recently graduated seem to have a better awareness and interest in practice of conscious sedation than others.